The following correspondence originally took place on my Facebook wall, upon my post, “Two Interesting Little-Known Facts About Bananas“…
Rayn: Benefit from the Natural Health of Bananas:
http://www.naturalnews.com/028206_bananas_health.htmlIt’s intriguing to discover that a banana is NOT EVEN A FRUIT, but an HERBACEOUS PERENNIAL! Thanx for the info, NaturalNews! Also, upon further research into the topic myself, I discovered that bananas DO NOT even grow on TREES, but on STALKS! Wow! (This may be meaningless for some, but I enjoy every opportunity available to UN-LEARN a LIE, then RE-LEARN the TRUTH!)
Jay L.: Very interesting
Rayn: Interesting, for sure! Become a fan of NaturalNews @http://www.facebook.com/HealthRanger to add their page posts to your Facebook feed!
Jay L.: 4sho
Charles C.: i knew about the stalk part but i didn’t know about the not being a fruit part. NOW I KNOW….. AND KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE
Rayn: Yes! Skillz!
Andrea E.: But i’ve seen the trees… how is this possible? How can it not be a fruit? It’s so fruity!
Patricia M.: Bananas are a genetic fluke, that they discovered and started to cultivate. It’s the offspring of two different plants. All the banana’s today are grown from clones. They are not the best banana’s, those died off from an outbreak of something, in the 70’s. (I forget what) And the bananas today are the second best, and also under attack from the same thing. The article said that there is no other replacement banana for the really good tasting bananas we have today.
Rayn: To answer your questions, Andrea: Banana growths are considered “stalks” instead of “trees,” because they are green, not woody. To be more specific, bananas grow on what is called a “pseudostem,” which is made up of rolled bases of leaves, and resembles a tree, but technically is not. Check it out for yourself (under the “Botany” section):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana#Botany
Using the true biological definition, bananas are technically not considered ‘fruit” because they are not the developed solely from the ovary of a flowering seed plant, together with its seeds. Instead, a banana is called “epigynous berry,” because some of its flesh is not derived from the ovary, but from adjacent tissue. Because of this, it is also known as an “accessory fruit,” or a “false berry.” Check it out in the following articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigynous_berry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessory_fruit
However, when using the culinary definition, it is entirely accurate to call a banana a “fruit,” so there is no need to adjust your entire vocabulary for this one fact! 🙂
Also, thanx for the info, Patricia! If you can find the article you are referring to, post it here! I will be sure to read it!
Earlene E.: I’m loving your facts you’re putting out.
Rayn: Thank you, Earlene.
(All original portions of this work, by Rayn Kleipe, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, while all redistributed links, images, sounds, videos, and writings are protected under 17 U.S.C. § 107: Fair Use, or under Public Domain)
